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CHAPTER 4

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DECEIT AND

DIRTY TRICKS

World War I marked the beginning of a new era of mechanized

warfare. A conflict that both sides had believed would be “over

by Christmas” dragged on for more than four years, leaving tens

of millions dead. As the technology of war developed, so did the

technology of espionage, with radio and telegraph messages and, for

the first time, reconnaissance from the air. Behind the lines, resistance

groups in occupied Belgium and France kept a clandestine record

of German troop movements via rail. The speed and quality of the

intelligence proved so good that it contributed to the stalemate,

preventing either side from mounting a decisive surprise attack.

Improved cryptography was key to intelligence in this new kind

of war. With the volume of transmissions possible via new technology,

teams of talented individuals were recruited to decode them. In 1917,

British intelligence triggered a decisive change in the course of the

war by decoding a German telegram that provoked the United States

to join the Allies’ cause. That same year, the Germans secretly colluded

with Bolshevik revolutionaries in order to take Russia out of the war.

By November 1918, Europe was exhausted by the carnage, and

an armistice was declared. By then, Russia had been through a

communist revolution, while Germany seemed on the brink of one.